NEWS
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NH group puts up billboards to help locate missing Maine toddler
The effort is the work of the New Hampshire-based group Lost N Missing. The group has put up eight billboards in Philadelphia and one in New Jersey and is working to get billboards in Boston and New Hampshire.


Connecticut issues silver alert for missing man
Steven McDermott, 42, was supposed to meet a man in Manchester, New Hampshire two weeks ago but never did, according to the state Department of Emergency Services & Public Protection.


Link in doubt between Vermont Yankee, radioactive fish


Underage sex trafficking is everywhere local law enforcement looks, but will their budgets hold out?
The reality is there's no large, empirical study gauging the prevalence of child prostitution, says David Finkelhor, director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire. No one really knows how many juveniles are sold for sex across the country. Estimates on child prostitution range from 1,400 a year (FBI Uniform Crime Report data) all the way to 2.4 million, an oft-cited figure lifted from dated and questionable research largely based on hunches.


BUSINESS
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NEW HAMPSHIRE PUBLIC RADIO has requested a Silent STA for FM translator W290BK/COLEBROOK, NH due to winter storm damage
NHPR apparently having broadcast issues in Colebrook. A request for a Silent STA involves asking the FCC for permission to squat the frequency even though it's not being broadcast. Prior to 1996 not broadcasting put stations in danger of losing their frequency. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_(broadcasting)


Job creation happening in states with least unemployment


Former UNH head Ann Weaver Hart to head University of Arizona


On day Temple's 30% budget cut is announced, President Hart hears she's sole candidate to head U. of Ariz.


Proposed Antrim windmill would be tallest in the state


FEATURES / ENTERTAINMENT
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NH woman is an international ghost hunter
Amy, my daughter, and I had a great time on our paranormal investigation with Kris Williams of New Hampshire and Amy Bruni of California. These two lovely and knowledgeable ladies work with the Atlantic Paranormal Society, also known as TAPS. They both started out with TAPS team originators Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson, two down-to-earth blue collar workers, who originated the TAPS team in Rhode Island. Many will recognize them from their show “Ghost Hunters” that comes on each Wednesday night at 8 and 10 p.m. on the SYFY channel. Amy still works here in the U.S. with the TAPS. Kris is now with the International Ghost Hunting team traveling around the world to investigate the paranormal.


Spanking may worsen children's aggression: what works instead?
Besides increased aggression, spanking increases the likelihood of depression, anxiety, and even cheating and criminal behaviors when the child becomes an adult. It also weakens the parent-child bond so “parents have less influence in setting an example of morally correct behavior,” said Murray Straus, a University of New Hampshire sociologist who has been studying spanking for more than 20 years.


Seacoast comic McKinney signs deal to develop comedy series w/ IFC and Denis Leary
"Hosed" is an original McKinney Web series about a volunteer fire department in the fictional town of Effingwoods, N.H., which was filmed in the state and produced by McKinney, Marc Dole of Hatchling Studios and Stanley Pavuk of York, Maine, an independent film producer. The series, shot in 2010, was posted on YouTube.



Depression II Art - Reclusive NH artists makes art from depression era objects



Utah Botanist Finds Smaller Amorphophallus Species
A. titanum grows naturally only in Sumatra in Indonesia, although it is found around the world in greenhouses that compete for the largest corpse flower plant. The Guinness Book of Records title currently is held by a New Hampshire specimen that had a spadix measuring 10-feet-2.25-inches tall in 2010. Counting the stem and spadix, A. titanum can reach 20 feet tall, compared with a 5-foot maximum for A. perrieri, which has a longer stem and shorter spadix – about 10 inches long in the case of the one that bloomed on campus.


Neighbors make ‘miracle' roses bloom for terminally ill wife of Wateville Valley ski instructor


Theater jobs fair registration deadline is Feb. 10


COURTS / PUBLIC OVERSIGHT
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Calif. ban on gay marriage struck down


POLITICS
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Ayotte joins McCain, Lieberman in warn Egypt that NGO crackdown is souring relations


Ayotte, Shaheen support Manchester VA Medical Center/Dartmouth Medical School partnership


Ayotte meets K. Shanmugam, Singapore's Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister of Justice


PRIMARY
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Project Veritas investigates voter fraud in Minnesota


NH one of 7 states that will decide election
Obama starts the campaign with a solid grasp on 247 Electoral College votes from the combined total of reliably blue states including California, New York, and Massachusetts. Romney will start with a hold of 206 Electoral College votes, with Texas, the South, and the Plains states behind the likely Republican nominee. That reduces the competitive territory to the 85 electoral votes of just seven states – New Hampshire (4), Nevada (6), Iowa (6), Colorado (9), Virginia (13), Ohio (18), and Florida (29). Obama will win another term with any combination of 23 electoral votes from these seven states. Romney must win Florida, but Obama has other paths to victory.


NYT: For Romney, night goes from bad to worse


Newt Gingrich Patron Sheldon Adelson Makes $3.3 Million An Hour



OPINION
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State Employment — When it comes to jobs, the rich get richer
States with low unemployment continue to be the best ones posting the strongest job creation.


Phillidelphia Inquirer - Ralph R. Reiland: Considering the life he lives, why would Mitt run for prez?
Why, especially, would someone who has it made in the shade like Mitt Romney, with a good family, good health, good looks, good houses (a $12 million beachfront compound in the La Jolla section of San Diego and a $10 million home on Lake Winnipesaukee, in New Hampshire) and a net worth that he estimates to be somewhere "between $150 and about $200-and-some-odd million dollars," want to turn himself into a piñata for a year of ugly campaigning?


Nashua Telegraph: Pennichuck salaries should be public


Cato - Roger Pilon: Three Blind Senators Defend ObamaCare
The Wall Street Journal often publishes op-eds from “the other side,” perhaps out of a sense of fairness, perhaps to show how bad the other side's reasoning sometimes is – “Don't take our word for it; see for yourself.” That rationale must have been at play in the decision to publish in this morning's edition a truly remarkable piece from the pens of three Senate women, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Barbara Boxer of California, and Patty Murray of Washington.


SPORTS
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Rays’ Fuld Shows Heart as His Legend Grows


North Conway makes National Geographic list of 25 Best Ski Towns


Scouting Yankees Prospect #17: Jordan Cote of Winnsiquam Regional High School


Nashua Telegraph: Amherst Country Club opens in February for the first time since 1968